Girls' hoops preview: Defending champion Valley Central is a target

MONTGOMERY — There wasn't much pressure last season on the Valley Central girls' basketball team, which made an improbable run to a Section 9 Class AA title as the No. 5 seed in a seven-team bracket.

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By WILLIAM MONTGOMERY

recordonline.com

By WILLIAM MONTGOMERY

Posted Dec. 2, 2012 at 2:00 AM

By WILLIAM MONTGOMERY
Posted Dec. 2, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Teams to watch

Cornwall: The Dragons lost three starters from the 2011-12 team, but Caroline Staudle, Alex Jurgens and Leanne Houston, last year's sixth man, are still a formidable trio.

Highland: The four...

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Teams to watch

Cornwall: The Dragons lost three starters from the 2011-12 team, but Caroline Staudle, Alex Jurgens and Leanne Houston, last year's sixth man, are still a formidable trio.

Highland: The four-time defending Section 9 champions lost Kelly Murphy and Alex Garcia, among others, to graduation, but Highland should once again be a contender in the MHAL and the Class B playoffs.

John A. Coleman Catholic: After being bumped up to Class C last season, Coleman Catholic will now compete in Class B in the Section 9 tournament. Do-it-all guard Makenzie Burud has graduated, but the team will be strong in the paint with towering twin sister duo of Nicole and Emily Curley, as well as senior center Lauren Melville.

Marlboro: The Dukes have a new head coach in Keith McAteer and drop down to Class B after having played in Class A last year. Angelica and Nicole Desantis, who combined to average 17.3 points per game last year, will also make Marlboro tough to beat on the boards.

Tri-Valley: The Bears lost to Coleman Catholic in last year's Class C championship game and will be one of the favorites in Class C again with forwards Nicole Bradley and Keira McHugh leading the way.

Wallkill: Heather Kiczek, one of the area's tallest players at 6-foot-1, and Rachel Simon, an explosive guard, both shone last year as freshman. Now sophomores, they'll be able sidekicks to senior captains Lisa Bouffard and Christine Benken.

Washingtonville: The Wizards could well be this year's Valley Central, a team that flies under the radar with a solid group of veteran players and hits its stride when the playoffs begin in late February.

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MONTGOMERY — There wasn't much pressure last season on the Valley Central girls' basketball team, which made an improbable run to a Section 9 Class AA title as the No. 5 seed in a seven-team bracket.

This year, things are a bit different.

"I mean, we definitely know that we're hunted now, but we just have to take it a game at a time," said senior point guard Haliann Fitzgerald. "That's what we did last year. We weren't worrying about getting to sections. We were taking each game at a time and seeing how we did and fortunately we won the whole thing."

Fitzgerald and Paige Van Pelt are among the Vikings' most skilled returning players, but Valley Central is adapting to playing without Hailey Anthony, Maggie Cocks, Alyssa Leahy and Caitlyn Weiner, all of whom played large roles as seniors last season.

For the Vikings captains, Fitzgerald, Van Pelt and senior center Chelsea Crawford, they're taking a page from what those seniors meant to the team last year, not just in their stat lines, but with what they did off the court as well.

"It's not like there is more pressure this year," Van Pelt said. "If anything, they gave us a good example of what to do now. We're just following in their footsteps. Obviously, what they did was right, so we're trying to follow what they did."

Section 9 appears to be a wide-open in Class AA again, as Monroe-Woodbury and Newburgh Free Academy are expected to be among the contenders. An up-and-coming Washingtonville squad and a young but talented Kingston team, along with Valley Central, all feel as if they have a shot.

"Our focus has been replacing those kids that left and trying to mesh as a unit," said head coach Tim Faulkner. "We're trying to bring in a lot of new players. It's not so much hey, we're the defending champs and we're walking around with swagger. We're know we have work to do. That's how we're approaching it. The girls, their attitudes have been great."

Crawford made her debut on the varsity team as a freshman when she was called up from the jayvee team after Christmas break. She missed her sophomore and junior seasons, however, after tearing the ACLs in both knees in separate incidents.

A 5-foot-11 center, Crawford will give the Vikings an edge in the paint they lacked last season, but Faulkner said he plans on easing her into the rotation, at least at the start of the season.

"I tease her sometimes, was that a clink or a clank? Was that a piece of rust that just fell off? She has to get back in the flow of things," Faulkner laughed.

Crawford's return means the Vikings' lineup will have plenty of height. Van Pelt is 5-foot-9, as is her younger sister Maddie, one of two freshman on the team. Katie Gallagher, a new addition to the varsity, is 5-foot-10.

For Crawford, who is equally adept at long-range jump shots as she is fighting for rebounds under the basket, she's just glad to be back on the court, even if it has been a struggle getting up to speed.

"It's definitely hard. I'm trying to remember everything I forgot over the last two years, remembering all the plays and stuff," she said. "I'm so used to playing with them at MPB (Most Precious Blood) and everything, we've been playing together for a while. It's hard to remember everything from where I left off considering how long ago it was, but it's starting to come back every day. I'm just happy that I'm starting to slowly remember everything."